hello and welcome to "comunidad del valle." i'm damien trujillo. welcome to our annual christmas on "comunidad del valle." our discontintinguished panel o judges are here. tell us what they'll be judging, what kind of tamales, if the folks can bring up the tamales

so the folks can start the process here and we'll introduce the judges. >> this is the best darn tamale contest. what we do is we actually -- tamale companies from all over the country from mississippi to oregon to texas and new mexico fly their tamales in to us, and during the month of november, we test over 100 tamales. and there are some people in the audience who tested all 100 tamales. the culinary art school helped us out with it. we narrowed it down to 25 tamales. we have a vegetarian/cheese category, traditional chicken, tradition nal pork/beef, a gourmet and a sweet dessert tamale. so what the people will be doing today, our judges, they'll be tasting five tamales in each of the five categories. so they're going to be getting really full, damian. >> we're tape in san pedro

market in downtown san jose. it ooh tess first time we took it on the roads. we'll be speaking with the judges in a bit. we're going to introduce them to you. cheryl forberg is an author and nutritionist with the nbc show "biggest loser." cheryl perfo please welcome. she's an average golfer, shot a 100 par at the ranch. she was on the golf's channel's big break ireland. and final michael hool i han is with the bare foot wine. he's also an author and public speaker and he's here to taste some of these gourmet tamales soopz. darlene, so which one are they going to start off with first? >> they're going to start off by eating the vegetarian tamales first.

bring those out forecast you can. >> tell us the history about the tamale. it's pretty fascinating. we've gone through this in the past. >> the as texts, incas, and the mayans have been eating tamales. they've been around for thousands and thousands of years. we don't know the exact origin but we know the mayan, when the pre-spannic cultures, when they went off to war, the women would go with them and cook and take care of things on there. the women decided, i think we're going to stay home, okay, so they got the little massa and put it in a cornhusk or banana leaf, said, here you go, honey, you can take that off to war with you. that's how tamales were born. it's the first to-go food. >> i don't know what this is. it doesn't look is that tasty. you guys be the judge. we'll let you have first dibs. >> we're doing things differently. we have a studio audience. they'll be judging the best overall tamale that was shipped

to us from soes andan jose and the country. we have a studio watch. we'll save some for you. in our next segment we'll come back and speak with the judges and find out what the think about the initial tamale and get the assessment and talk about the history and why they are here today. so enjoy. [ man ] did we get anything good? sweetie i think you need a little extra fiber in your diet. fiber makes me sad.

oh common. i dare you to taste one hint of fiber in fiber one. oh, i'd be able to tell. why don't i just eat this bag? and how can you talk to me about fiber when you are eating a candybar. you enjoy that. i am. [ male announcer ] fiber beyond recognition. fiber one. welcome back to our annual christmas on "comunidad del valle." the judgments have had a chance to taste two or three. cheryl forberg is an author and nutritionist with the biggest loser, the nbc show. it's a little crowded. is this something you might not recommend to con it is tablets of the biggest loser?

>> particularly the second one that was wrapped in white flour and fried. that would not be on the plan. >> tell us how difficult it is to instill will and inspire participants in the biggest loser. >> i think it's hard because a lot of us are not endowed with the biggest willpower. that's why we have such an ee beesty problem. by the time they get to the show, they want to get their lives back. >> you wrote a book? >> i wrote a book called "flavorfirst" with recipes i wrote for the eating show. >> cheryl is about to dig into her fourth or fifth. michael is world-renowned. he comes from ireland. i would assume that because i think mexicans are half irish, i would assume there's something comparable in ireland to a tamale? >> there's absolutely nothing that compares the tamale. indeed, i don't know whether i should be up here on the platform because i don't know whether i'm an expert tore not. i know what's good and so far

the first four are great. >> a-ha. tell us about your performance. you're here in the bay area until new year's. >> yeah. we're starting december 13 through january 1 right downtown in union square. there's a cast of 20 singers and dancers and we're bringing a little bit of ireland for a celtic holiday, a celtic christmas. >> to do what you do, how important is it to develop that diaphragm and make sure that it comes from way down here and -- >> well, you know, obviously you have to be trained. but it has to sound somewhat spontaneous. you know, i don't take it too seriously. i like to have a good time and i like everybody else to have a good time. we encourage the audience to do some singing too, you know. >> thank you very much. go ahead and enjoy the rest of your tamale. i'm going to squeeze by the servers from san jose job corpse who are generous enough to be here. nina rodriguez was with the golf channel. did you run into this guy in

ireland. >> no. but his accent definitely brings it back. >> tell us about that. i know the last round you participated in, it was really windy, windy and cold and very ugly. what was it like for you many. >> very unique. you can't find that there. to be able to play in variables like that, i mean that's irish golf to the fullest. i got to experience what they do. >> your favorite club in the bay? >> i'd like to say them all. they're all my number one club, you know. you've got to have nefrg the bag, so -- >> how do you shoot a 100 par to play at the most difficult clubs? >> you make puts. you have those days. >> enjoy your tamale. michael hool i han an author, public speaker, barefoot wine, tell us what you do and why you decided to come here and participate in this

tamale-eating contest? >> bonnie and i started barefoot wine back in 1986 in our laundry room up in sonoma county with no mown and no knowledge of the industry and we built it up to a bestseller and we use nod advertising. all word of mouth. so i have a lot of respect to these entrepreneurs who are putting these tamales together today. now we go around the country and help small businesses get to a point where they can build their business up to realize their equity and their brand. so we enjoy what we're doing here today and we like to support small business, especially entrepreneurs. >> red wine, white wine, does it matter? >> i'm kind of a zinfandel fan myself. it's our native california a very i tall, and it goes so well with some of the hot middle tones and notes that you get in

tamales. so i appreciate it. i've enjoyed all the tamales i've had so far. the vegetarian tamales are great because, you know, i feel like i can go ahead and splurge. >> you know. go ahead. michael hool i han, thank you so much for being here. i procedure fehr the ones filled with pork because they're stuffed in there. again, darlene, you got these tamales that were shipped in from colorado, santa fe, oklahoma city even. >> oklahoma city, oregon, new mexico, arizona. we get these tamales from everywhere. they get flown in from all over the country and we taste them all. like for instance, what they're in the middle of tasting right now, we have a black bean spinach corn tamale, deep fried veggie tamale and black beane. spinach and mushroom and a sweet corn tamale with cheddar cheese and chilies in it.

we're going to move to the chick about real soon. >> i guess the key when you're judge 25g tamales is to not eat the entire sample. kind of sample it. >> i was telling them all they need to pace themselves. we didn't bring any tummy remedies here. pace yourself, eat a couple bites, rate them and let us know how it is. >> people can log onto your website to find out the category and who the judges are and who sent in the tamales. >> you can e-mail us and we'll have a list of all the tamale locations that participated. and after the show airs, we will list the winners in each category as well. again, if you go to bestdarntamale.c bestdarntamale.com, you'll be able to see a whole list of the tamale locations. >> all right. up next on "comunidad del valle," live here on our stage, royalty. stay with us.

welcome back to "comunidad del valle's" seventh annual best darn tamale contest here on the show with our judges. what are they eating now? seems like they're on their tenth one. >> oh, my gosh. they're going through the chicken category. they might be sneaking up on the pork category now. yeah. >> we're coming to you from the san pedro market in san jose. we want to thank them for the venue. your onmets, this is something everyone ought to have on their christmas tree. tell us about it. >> these are our ornaments. i design them. i have a company called cas casa cue. they're being carried in museum and specialty stores throughout the nation as well as macy's and macy's.com. part of this. what we're showing today is a whole array of items.

all of our celebrity tasters are going to get all of these items and one of the members from the studio audience is going get it. if you're at home, go to facebook.com/casaq and put "i want to win a swag bag. you can win all these items. let me tell you what is in the items. they make these incredible chock lalts from cocoa beans. they have different flavors. all kinds of really cool flavors and different varieties. they're beautiful too. they're like all stamped and look beautiful. we have runa. it's actually not a tea leaf but wait it is is a bark from a trunk of a tree in the amazon forest. it's very good for you, this tea. we have -- these are from anna coffer. she makes these really cool

bracelets. actually everybody in the audience today is going to get a $25 certificate for ana's. >> whoo-hoo. >> we have elements by lisa rocha. she makes very beautiful, very traditional jewelry is. they're all hand-tooled, silver jewelry. and then this is anna alvarado. anna alvarado is an artist. she's really cool because she has -- all of her art is done on wooden boards and she paints it with markers. these are copies of it. you can buy things like credit card holders or different things with her artwork as well. she has a lot of originals as well. we have pingo. pi pingo is a calling card. these are from cha-cha chic. everyone -- not everyone but or select judges will get t-shirts in their bags. then we have the wyman's glass

cooktop cleaner. this is great if you have smooth cooktops to clean your stuff. everyone's going to get one of those. >> those all go in your swag bag bag. i think we're ready for our live performance. please welcome to our studio, our makeshift studio in downtown san jose, royalty. >> whoo. ♪ ♪

♪ everyone's going to get one of

♪ everyone's going to get one of ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ [ cheers and applause ]

and welcome back to "comunidad del valle." we have a winner, actually several winners. let me ask cheryl first what she thinks of this experience here. >> i loved ichlt i didn't know a lot about how many different varieties of tamales there could be, but i really loved the chicken curry in the exotic

category. very good. >> very nice. michael, is it dpoik to make you sing louder, better? >> i'm worried about the stage tonight. i could be coughing up tamales through the whole show. but it was well organized. gorgeous food there. >> thank you very much. nina, what do you think? >> it was hard for me because i'm not very picky. if it tastes good, it tastes good. i'm not a very good critic but i'm a big chicken fan. the spices were good. >> thank you for being here. michael, what do you think. >> i thought they were all great, every one of them. i particularly liked tamale 1-a from our singer over here. it was just fabulous. >> the very first one. >> yes, i loved it. >> does that go good with pinot? >> actually i'd go with another. >> very good. go ahead, darlene. give us the final tally. >> i wanted to show all the

tamales so you could see the wild variety of tamales. in the vegetarian cheese category, wally's tamales from woodland park, colorado. he had the deep fright tamale that many of you enjoyed. the home stile chicken is felipa's comid a casera from oklahoma city. >> get out of here. >> who knew oklahoma could put it out of there. traditional pork/beef, santa fe green. the fourth category which was the gourmet skpsh exotic one, that was a tough one. people really went back and forth with the barbecue chicken with gupta and theurry chicken but the curry chicken won. and in the last category we had a tiebreaker we had to bring in our special thai breaker judge. where is she? bonnie.

can you jump up here real quick. >> bonnie harvey. >> where do you want me? >> right over here. >> bonnie is also a barefoot wine founder. we pulled her in. spicy pumpkin won. and for the overall tamale, when we added up everybody's, the piern apple coconut. so i must say the spicy pumpkin tamale was tamale lovers in brentwood, california. lore rena had a pineapple/coconut/raisin tamale. that was the local winner. >> lockal then. we want to thank those who made this possible at san pedro market. the folks here at the market who made this possible. the job corps culinary school.

catholic u. luvi deinaro. stand by the folks. who are we forgetting here. the staff at the nbc bay area. there's quite a few interns here and all the production staff that came out here for our seventh annual best darn tamale's competition. >> we had laurie and lupe help us to add up all the results in a real hurry. >> well, thank you all for being here again, once again on our seventh annual best darn tamale contest on "comunidad del valle." this is an annual tradition. we hope to be back with you next year and see where else they might be shipping these great tamales from. again, where can that i go for the final results? >> finally results are at bestdarntamale.com and we'll have all of the companies that participated here today. i must say it's really hard as many of you guys saw. it's hard to choose a ta mali. there are so many different varieties. and whenever anybody's gone through this tasting they're like, wow, i never knew there

with sore many tamales out there because you're used to your home stile tamales. the whole list. everyone that's a finalist is really a winner because they are really, really great tamales and it was hard to narrow it down to 25 and hard to choose one. >> thanks for watching. the air will reair once again on new year's morning.